CALIFORNIA: Local officials will focus on improving workforce training and transportation infrastructure when applying for federal grants after making it into an exclusive federal program last month, officials said at a news conference.The U.S. Department of Commerce (DC) announced in July that the San Antonio metro area was among a dozen regions chosen for its Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership program, or IMCP.
That means local groups will get a leg up when applying for federal grants for a variety of uses, including infrastructure, academic research and promotion of international trade. The Commerce Department (CD) appointed a federal liaison in Austin to help the San Antonio region apply for grants. Local leaders don’t yet have specific grants in mind to apply for, said Joe Wilson, chairman of the San Antonio Manufacturers Association.
They plan to meet in the coming weeks to come up with a plan. “That’s the next step to get a list of needs,” he said.San Antonio already has programs to train manufacturing workers, including one at Alamo Colleges. But federal grants could “take it up a level of scale,” Dewey said, such as by establishing a curriculum in the region’s high schools that would prepare students for manufacturing careers.
